KAROLE ARMITAGE

Karole Armitage’s Dance Play In 9 Seductions And An Epilogue, Yo, Giacomo Casanova is loosely based on the famous seducer’s Mémoirs (18th century). Calling himself a writer and adventurer, Casanova led a tumultuous life, studying first in Venice for a religious career and then travelling all over Europe, serving different personalities, always provoking scandals. He even worked as a secret agent for the Holy Inquisition, but died poor and sick as a librarian of count of Waldstein.

The Mémoirs are not only a novel of adventures but of an infinite series of encounters, exchanges, travels, conversations and seductions, a subtle tissue that grows and feeds the plot of the choreography, which is based on the constant and total communication between the dancers.

The figure and the experiences of the libertine become a metaphor for the inevitability of human limitations: no single life can encompass the range of imagination and desire, nor escape mortality. The journey begins with the idealization of love, expressed by Casanova’s keen interest in the opposite sex. His text is then followed by poems of Tennessee Williams, Auden, Philip Larkin and John Wieners, which are interpreted by a series of danced duets expressing different aspects of and perspectives on the phenomenon love.

The intermezzi are sung by American counter-tenor Antony Costanzo. The costumes by Indian designer Arjun Bhasin, with their richness of colours and textures, recreate the opulence of the 18th century Venetian society, allowing transformation and cross dressing between the different characters on stage. The set, by architect Andrea Branzi, is a changing architectural structure which reflects the relationships of Casanova with the social order: on the surface, he seems to obey the social rules, but inwardly creates his own, in a struggle to achieve personal freedom.

PRODUCTION DATES
Taormina, Italy, Teatro Antico, Taormina Arte, 24 – 25 June 2000
Athens, Greece, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Greek Festival 2000, 9 – 10 July 2000
Rome, Italy, Accademia Tedesca di Villa Massimo, 13 – 14 July 2000